Subject: RE: [ASDnet] John Lacny & Column Under Censorship Attack
RE: US aid to Israel From: Max Sawicky ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Date: Mon Apr 08 2002 - 16:29:33 EDT Next message: Gar Lipow: "Re: Why we will need lawyers anyway" Previous message: Yoshie Furuhashi: "Re: Oodles and oodles of life" In reply to: Micheal Ellis: "RE: US aid to Israel" Next in thread: Doug Henwood: "RE: US aid to Israel" Reply: Doug Henwood: "RE: US aid to Israel" Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] [ attachment ] > >>. . . Since 1949 the U.S. has given Israel a total of $83.205 billion. The > >>interest costs borne by U.S. tax payers on behalf of Israel are $49.937 > >>billion, thus making the total amount of aid given to Israel since 1949 > >>$133.132 billion. This may mean that U.S. government has given > more federal aid to the average Israeli citizen in a given year than it has > given to the average American citizen. > > > well the 84 billion total does not include loan guarantees. which > israel isn't required to pay back. > > "there have been the approximately $10 billion in U.S. loan guarantees > and perhaps $20 billion in tax-exempt contributions made to Israel by > American Jews in the nearly half-century since Israel was created." > > i think this is the article that he got those figures from > http://www.washington-report.org/backissues/1297/9712043.html This article has some fuzzy math in it. The main item is the bogus interest figure cited (accurately) above. The assumption underlying this number is that Israeli aid is uniquely financed by borrowing, unlike all other spending that is offset by revenues. If you applied this adjustment to *all* spending, you would get a total interest obligation vastly in excess of the actual amount. In other words, suppose total spending is $10, revenues are $8, and aid to Israel is $1. In truth, only $2 is added to debt, which at 5% interest is 10 cents a year. The article's claim is that a dollar of aid means 5 cents of interest. But if all spending is treated likewise, total interest is 50 cents, rather than 10 cents. It's also fuzzy to add loans to loan guarantees, as the author acknowledges in the article (but does anyway). The value of the loan guarantee is just the spread in interest rates, not the principal (as the author acknowledges). There is this funny sentence in the article, and I don't mean funny ha-ha, I mean creepy . . . "Probably the only members of Congress who even suspect the full total of U.S. funds received by Israel each year are the privileged few committee members who actually mark it up. And almost all members of the concerned committees are Jewish, have taken huge campaign donations orchestrated by Israel's Washington, DC lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), or both." I have to wonder why people waste their time with this stuff while the IDF is shooting Palestinians down like dogs in the street. mbs Next message: Gar Lipow: "Re: Why we will need lawyers anyway" Previous message: Yoshie Furuhashi: "Re: Oodles and oodles of life" In reply to: Micheal Ellis: "RE: US aid to Israel" Next in thread: Doug Henwood: "RE: US aid to Israel" Reply: Doug Henwood: "RE: US aid to Israel" Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] [ attachment ] This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Tue Apr 09 2002 - 16:00:06 EDT >--- Original Message --- >From: Hunter Gray <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: RedBadBear <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, ASDNET <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Socialist Lists <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, socunity <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, StopWarDiscussion <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Red Youth <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Date: 4/9/02 11:20:59 AM > >Note by Hunterbear: > >John Lacny, a grad student in his early twenties at University of >Pittsburgh, is a sharp and committed young activist who has very ably >managed the Marxist Discussion Group for more than two years and, since thi >s >mid-March, has also handled his new "It's No Accident" list which publishes > >his thoughtful and lively column by the same name which has -- has -- >appeared with regularity and popularity in The UP's Pitt News. Now that >column is under censorship attack by bigots and fearmongers at the >University. > >John has climbed high enough for the Lightning to strike out at him -- but >he is, of course, keeping right on keeping on and full ahead. > > Here is John Lacny's just issued statement on the matter: >--------------------------------------------------------------------- > >A Special Announcement from It's No Accident, April 9, 2002 > >Dear friends and comrades, > >Since January of this year my political column, "It's No Accident," had bee >n >making regular appearances in the pages of The Pitt News, the student >newspaper at the University of Pittsburgh. Well, no longer. Here's the stor >y >why.
